Steven Anthony Stark
by Livin4Jesus
Summary: Steve Rogers has a few secrets. He was actually born in 1989 and in 2007 he was the victim of a freak accident that had him waking up in 1940. He never expected to survive the plane crash. So it was a bit of a surprise when he woke up in New York only 5 years after he originally disappeared. Oh did I fail to mention that Steve's real name is Steven Anthony Stark? No slash Slight AU
1. Prologue

**A/N Finally! I'm posting one of the stories I've been talking about posting for the last month. Yay! ;) Anyway, this first chapter is really short but it's just a prologue. Future chapters will be longer. Also, I don't write in first person POV very often but it just seemed to fit this prologue. The rest of the story will be in the third person style that I usually write in. **

**This is the first story in my Time Travel Changes Everything universe. The list of stories in this universe and the recommended reading order is at the bottom of my profile for anyone who is interested. **

**Prologue**

My name is Steven Anthony Stark and I was born in 1989 to Anthony Edward Stark and Alia Rachael Stark. My dad gave me my first name and my mom gave me my middle name. My dad named me after his childhood hero and my mom named me after my dad.

My Parents met in college. My dad was seventeen and my mom was eighteen. They were married as soon as my dad turned eighteen and I was born ten months later. My dad's parents were already dead by that time and my dad didn't care about the company. He was happy with my mom so he essentially dropped off the map. The three of us lived in a normal little town, in a normal little house. No one knew who he was. No one who used to know him, knew he was married or had a kid and he was fine with that.

Until tragedy struck.

I was six when my mom died in a house fire. My dad and I survived but she died of her injuries. That night my dad became a single parent. He didn't have his wife anymore. He didn't have his house. All he had was me. He didn't have anywhere to go but back. He was twenty-five years old and he stepped back into the public spotlight and took over his father's company.

He had disappeared for seven years and he made sure to keep those years a complete secret. No one. _No one _knew about me. In school I had a different last name and made up parents. If anyone saw me with my dad, I was his cousin's child or a friend's child that he was watching for a short time. Once I turned fifteen, the cover story changed. I became the intern working for the company.

When I was little I thought my dad must have been ashamed of me or maybe I reminded him too much of my mother, but once I was older, I realized the truth. He was protecting me. He was giving me a normal childhood. He was keeping me out of the spotlight and now that's something I am very grateful to him for.

He had had to grow up in the public eye. Cameras and paparazzi were a constant in his childhood. He didn't want that for me. He wanted me to have something he hadn't had. Privacy. If no one knew I existed I would never be the public's entertainment.

When I was growing up, my dad told me all the stories about the great Captain America. They were my favorite stories. I knew my dad had named me Steve after Captain America, I had seen pictures of Steve Rogers, and as a teenager I bore an uncanny resemblance to Captain America. But I never had a good explanation for the likeness until I was eighteen and my life changed forever.

I was in the lab with my dad, working on one of his latest projects. Now I'm not a genius like my dad but I'm not an idiot either. My dad has taught me a lot of things about technology over the years, and tinkering with things was always a way for us to spend time together.

We were working on a device that would generate force fields. If it worked, it would be revolutionary, like most of my dad's ideas. He had had the idea for some time but it was never possible due to the extreme amount of energy the design required. But then my dad obtained this strange blue cube that could generate massive amounts of energy. If my dad could harness that energy, he could power the force field generator.

At first, we had had problems getting the cube to work and synchronize with the generator, but at last, we thought we had cracked it. I remember my dad making a final adjustment to the machine before standing back up and putting an arm around me. Together we looked at the large mass of technology we had spent the previous three weeks working on.

Then he asked me if I wanted to flip the switch to activate the generator.

What happened next is a bit of a blur. I remember flipping the switch and the generator humming to life but then it all went wrong. The humming got louder and higher pitched. Then it started sparking, and suddenly there was a bright flash of blue light as a bolt of something resembling blue lightning arced out and slammed into my chest.

The next thing I remember is waking up, feeling like I had been hit in the chest by a baseball bat. I was in a strange place with people dressed in odd clothes. The first thought I had was that it reminded me of hospitals in movies from the forties. That's when the cold, heart-stopping suspicion blindsided me. I managed to muster up enough strength to ask one of the nurses what year it was. To her credit, she didn't look at me like I was completely nuts as she answered that it was 1940.

That's when I knew. I wasn't named after Captain America. I am Captain America.


	2. Captain America

**A/N Thank you guys so much for the favorites, alerts, and reviews! I didn't have time to respond to the reviews individually (I'll try to do better from now on) so I'll just thank you guys here. :)**

**Okay so the first few chapters will be kind of broad overviews of the events of _Captain America: TFA_, _Iron Man_, and _Iron Man 2_ with some slight changes of my own. The story will pick up and become more AU once we get to the events of _The Avengers_. **

**BTW, I don't know the actual timeline for _Captain America: TFA_ (and I can't remember if there were any specific dates or years mentioned in the movie), so I don't know what year it was when Steve entered the army, when he finally saw action, or when he crashed the plane. Therefore, I picked my own dates throughout this story. If any dates are wrong, just chalk it up to being AU. :)**

**Captain America**

Steve slipped the letter he had just finished writing into an envelope and sealed it. He knew there was a good chance he wasn't going to be coming back from his mission. He knew the history and even in knowing it, he couldn't change it. After all, he had tried to change history with Bucky and he had still died.

Steve had met Bucky not long after he landed in that era. The machine that sent him there had done more damage than just displacing him in time. It had taken his energy, his muscle, and even some of his bone mass. Now, he hadn't been a huge, hulking person in his time, but he was of average height and was strong for his age. All in all, he was a typical eighteen year old boy. But after he landed in the forties, he was small, puny, and weak. He had all kinds of medical problems and allergies. Issues he had never had in his life were suddenly his constant burden. Truly, the machine had taken everything from him, his time, his father, and even his health.

When Bucky found him, he was on the streets. Steve had grown up all his life with his dad, he had never wanted for anything. He had never been on his own or even away from home. When he got thrown through time, he hadn't even gone off to college yet. He had no money, no experience providing for himself, and no knowledge of how that time worked. So he was living, or rather, slowly dying, on the streets.

Bucky found him one day and Steve didn't know what the man saw in him, but whatever it was, it made Bucky take a chance on him, and Steve was glad he did. He took Steve in, gave him food to eat, and a place to sleep. He helped him get a job and once Steve was bringing in some money, they split the rent. Without a doubt, James 'Bucky' Barns saved Steve's life. Steve just wished he could have returned the favor, but even knowing ahead of time what would happen, Steve still couldn't prevent it.

It was a terrible burden to know the future and even more so to not be able to tell anyone about it. Steve had been in the forties less than a year when the United States joined the war. The war that he knew everything about, all the important dates and names were stored away in his memory. It would be a gross understatement to say it was hard to keep from letting slip things that hadn't happened yet or accidentally blurting out future events. Steve definitely ended up perfecting his surprised face for anytime a major event occurred. 'Pearl Harbor was attacked? That's horrible!' 'D-day? We got France back? Really? That's great!'

Of course, once the United States joined the war, Steve started trying to enlist, even though he knew he wouldn't get in, not until The Stark Expo and Dr. Erskine. But first he had to lay the ground work. He had to try over and over to get in. After all, his father had always told Steve that that was part of the reason Erskine gave Captain America, him, a chance.

That wasn't the reason Steve tried to get into the army, though. He didn't do it because he wanted to be Captain America. Being Captain America sounded like a huge burden for any man, let alone an eighteen year old kid. He did it because he wanted to help people and, at that point, becoming Captain America was the only way he was going to be able to do that. Obviously, he had had to lie about who his parents were, and he took the last name Rogers, which just so happened to be his mother's maiden name. Steve knew it would be a bit hard to explain the last name Stark, especially once he met his grandfather.

Steve had heard the 'hover car' story from his dad but it was much funnier in person and it was beyond strange to watch Howard Stark on the stage and know that he was the grandfather Steve had never known, not to mention that said grandfather was not much older than him. Those thoughts brought forth the realization that Steve was living in a time before his own father was even born. He had had to walk away and think about something else before he got a headache.

That was when he met Dr. Erskine. He was a good man and a good friend. Erskine gave Steve his chance even if he did have to go through boot camp, which would have been bad enough even if he hadn't been turned into such a wimp. The only highlight was Peggy. She really was beautiful, but Steve knew he couldn't get close to her. History didn't exactly have a happy ending for them.

Then he had to jump on that grenade, which surprisingly enough he actually didn't do because he knew it was a dummy. He knew the story, but when it actually happened, he forgot it was a test until it was already over. Before it happened, Steve wasn't sure he had it in him to make a sacrifice like that but, apparently, when it came down to it, he did. Knowing that history said he was brave and self-sacrificing, and actually knowing that himself, were two different things.

Next came the serum, which was easily the most physically painful experience of his life and was followed closely by one of the most emotionally painful experiences of his life. He had never seen someone die before, and aside from 'losing' his father (which was the most emotionally painful experience in his life), Erskine was probably the hardest loss he had ever endured (his mother's death closely followed it but Steve had been so young when she had died that it hadn't hit him as hard as Erskine's death).

That was also the first time Steve discovered he couldn't change anything. Even knowing that the spy was going to kill Erskine, Steve couldn't prevent it. But he could bring down the man who killed him.

It felt amazing to Steve to be able to run, really run, again. He took off flying up the street, and it didn't even feel like he was putting forth any effort. The exhilaration was tempered, however, by the task

he sought to complete. And even after he stopped the man, it didn't make him feel better. Erskine was still dead and Steve couldn't even make his death mean something because of that stupid senator who decided to make Steve a puppet for earning money. Once again, Steve knew what was coming but couldn't stop it. The only consolation was that he knew he would one day get his shot, even if he had to go through some humiliation to get there.

When his shot did come, Steve didn't hesitate to take advantage of it. He didn't even need history to tell him what to do. Saving Bucky was a no-brainer. He was Steve's friend and the super soldier owed him his life. So Steve got help from Peggy and Howard and went behind enemy lines. Reading about war and seeing movies about war was nothing compared to the reality of war. It was dirty, and messy, and a nightmare and Steve faced it head on to saved his friend, and along the way, he made some more. After that, he finally got to start helping people. He and the Howling Commandos started taking down Hydra one factory at a time.

Then Bucky died.

Steve tried to save him and, just like with Erskine, he was powerless to do so. The pain of losing Bucky, the first friend Steve had had in that time, was overwhelming. By itself, it would have been bad enough but it just seemed to compound his earlier losses and brought those to the forefront of his mind. First Steve lost his father. Yes, he was still alive in the future but Steve had resigned himself to the fact that he would never see him again. Then he lost his friend Dr. Erskine, and finally Bucky was gone. The worst, Steve had to admit, was losing his father, but the guilt that came with having the knowledge of Erskine's and Bucky's deaths and not being able to save them was a very close second.

All three of those hit Steve at the same time and, as it turned out, he couldn't even get drunk to forget for a little while. Karma could be such a jerk sometimes.

It wasn't long after that, that the day of the plane crash arrived. Once again, Steve knew what was coming, but this time he knew he probably wouldn't be able to change it. It wouldn't stop him from trying but, at the same time, he was under no illusions.

That was why he wrote the letter. Just in case. And there was only one person who he trusted to make sure it would be delivered, and the only person he knew of who _could_ get it delivered.

"Peggy." She turned around at Steve's voice. "I need you to do something for me," he told her.

"What?"

"This letter. I need you to take it and see that it's delivered if anything should happen to me," he said.

"Steve, you musn't think that way. Nothing is going to happen to you," she told him.

Oh, if only she knew.

"I know. It's just in case," he told her with a small, casual smile.

That seemed to do the trick as she relaxed slightly.

"Now, I know this is going to sound crazy, but if something goes wrong I need this letter delivered to this address," Steve said, pointing at the name and address on the front of the envelope. "but not until after this date," he turned the envelope over and pointed to the date on the back.

"Steve, this can't be right. This date is almost seventy years from now," she said, looking at the date in confusion.

"I know, and I know it sounds strange but it has to be after that date. Please, just trust me and don't ask any more questions. Just know this means more to me than you can know," he said.

"Okay, Steve. I trust you, no matter how odd this may be. But it's not going to matter anyway because nothing is going to happen to you," she said again.

"Of course not." Steve hoped his tone and expression didn't come across as fake as they felt. Just don't forget," he said, handing her the letter and moving away before she could see through his facade.

Next, he ran into Howard. Oh well, he figured he might as well get all the goodbyes out of the way at the same time.

Even after nearly two years of knowing the man, it was still hard for Steve to reconcile the young version of Howard with the version his father had told him about. Although Howard had never been abusive or anything toward Tony, he had also never really been there. He had always been too occupied with his work and when he was around, Tony never could seem to impress him or make him proud. He described Howard as indifferent, apathetic, and even, on some occasions, slightly cold.

Tony had once admitted to Steve that he didn't know if his father had ever really loved him or not. It was something that seemed so foreign to Steve, who had never doubted that his own father loved him. Steve's whole life, Tony had always made sure Steve knew how much Tony loved him, and Steve couldn't imagine growing up unsure whether his father loved him.

The Howard that Steve knew didn't seem like the indifferent type, though. Yes, he was a spoiled, rich playboy, but he did seem to care about people and he seemed like a good guy.

Steve knew his father hadn't lied or exaggerated. He knew if Tony said Howard was apathetic and unfeeling toward him, then that's the way it was, but, at the same time, that wasn't the person Steve had met in the nineteen forties. Steve didn't know what had happened to cause Howard to change from the friend he knew, into the father Tony had known, but he knew something must have changed the man because the two images Steve had of him just didn't match up.

"Hey, Steve," Howard said, breaking Steve out of his thoughts.

"Hey, Howard."

"You writing letters to Peggy?" Howard asked with an amused smile.

"No. It wasn't for her," Steve said, hoping to prevent the teasing.

"You got some kind of condition keeping you from mailing letters yourself?" Howard asked jokingly.

Steve heaved a resigned sigh. There didn't seem to be a way around explaining it to him.

"It's to someone I care about in the event something happens to me."

"You expecting something to go wrong?" Howard asked, his smile fading.

"No, but you never know do you?" Steve said, trying to act nonchalant.

If anyone could spot a lie it was Howard Stark.

"I suppose so," he said, sounding a bit suspicious. "Just don't go looking for trouble, Steve."

"When have I ever done that?" Steve asked, causing both of them to laugh. It felt good to laugh, one last time.

"But hey, in all seriousness, just in case something did happen," Howard said hesitantly and a bit uncomfortably. "I want you to know, you're my friend, and someday when I have a son I'm going to name him after you."

Irony was truly a funny thing.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Steve said.

"You don't?" Howard asked, his expression falling a bit.

"Yeah, Steve is too plain, especially for your kid," Steve said with a smirk. "I think Anthony is a better name for a boy."

"Anthony," Howard mumbled, trying the name out.

"It's my middle name," Steve said.

"Anthony is a good name," Howard agreed thoughtfully. "Maybe Anthony Steven?"

"How about Anthony Edward? My father's name was Edward and he's the greatest man I've ever known," Steve said truthfully. Technically it was his father's middle name, but it was still his name so it wasn't really a lie.

"You know, that's not bad. I like it. Thanks, Steve," the inventor said.

It was all Steve could do to keep from laughing. He had just basically named his own father. Life didn't get much crazier than that.

"Hey, no problem. Just do one thing for me?" he said.

"Anything," Howard agreed.

Steve was seconds away from asking Howard to take good care of his son and love him, but then Steve remembered that no matter what he said or did, he wouldn't be able to change history. Steve wouldn't be able to change his father's childhood and he couldn't prevent Howard from dying when Tony was just in his teens. Howard would still be a far from perfect parent and he would still die in a car accident years before Steve was ever born.

"When you have that son, make sure you tell him about me, okay?" Steve requested instead.

"You can do that yourself," Howard replied.

Steve just smiled at Howard as he patted the super soldier on the shoulder and walked away. Steve highly doubted he would ever get the chance to do that.

* * *

**Like I said, the first few chapters are to kind of set up this AU reality before we jump into the events of _The Avengers_ and the plot actually picks up a bit more. So if the first couple of chapters are a bit on the boring side (which I hope they're not because I'm trying to make them interesting), just bare with me, they're kind of needed to explain the changes I've made to the canon world. **


	3. I Am Iron Man

**A/N Special thanks to those who reviewed last chapter!**

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**I Am Iron Man**

It had been a week since Steve had disappeared in the accident with the force field device.

To anyone else, it would seem that the boy had been killed, completely vaporized by the beam of energy that had fried the device and left it little more than charred metal. However, Tony had another theory. Steve's resemblance to his namesake had always been uncanny at best and downright disturbing at worst. And now, with slight temporal readings that had rapidly faded after the explosion, Tony was pretty sure what had happened. However, it was when someone delivered a very old letter to him, addressed to A.E.S in a familiar handwriting, that he knew. He knew that his son was Captain America, the hero of World War Two, and that he was well and truly gone.

It was with shaking hands that Tony turned over the letter, vaguely noticing the 'do not deliver before this date' note written on the back, and opened the envelop. He pulled out a yellowed piece of paper and almost dropped it as he caught sight of the first two words.

_Dear Dad,_

_By now you have probably figured out that the energy beam that hit me didn't kill me. It sent me back to 1940. It was no coincidence that I always looked so much like Steve Rogers. When you think about it, it makes sense. After all, mom's maiden name was Rogers. But all that aside, I am Captain America and today is the day of the plane crash. I'm going to do my absolute best to change what happens and keep from having to crash the plane, but I wasn't able to save Erskine or Bucky so I don't have a lot of hope. I want to live and I want to survive to see you again but if it comes to it, I will crash the plane. I can't put my life, and what I want, above those of countless innocent people. I would never be able to live with myself and I would never be able to look you in the eye again. You raised me to be better than that. You raised me to care about people and I know if it was you, you'd crash the plane in an instant. I just hope you can be proud of me, and I want you to know that I love you, Dad. Always. _

_Your son,_

_Steve_

Tears stained the page as they rolled down Tony's face. He had known in his heart that Steve was gone, but the letter just made it real and Tony broke down. Steve had written that he hoped that Tony could be proud of him, and he was. He was _so _proud of his son. But he would never get to tell him that. Tony would never again be able tell his son just how much he loved him. He would never be able to hug his son again or see him smile.

A pain, the likes of which Tony had never felt before, shot through his chest and it was so much worse than any physical pain he had ever experienced. It felt as if his heart was actually shattering in his chest. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't scream, no matter how much he wanted to. He could only suffer and distantly wonder if this was what dying felt like, because it had to be close.

The pain was agonizing and unbearable. But unlike physical pain, it didn't fade or lessen as time wore on. If anything, the pain only grew worse, until great, violent sobs racked his body and stole his breath.

That night, he slept curled up on the floor, Steve's letter clutched to his chest and tear tracks drying on his face.

**)()()(**

After that night, Tony Stark changed. He lost the will to live but he didn't have the strength, or perhaps he had too much strength, to commit suicide. He thought about it. Of course he thought about it. It would be a lie to say otherwise. Anyone who has lost their child has probably had it cross their mind no matter how fleeting. Tony had thought about it in depth, but every time he did, he couldn't stop the mental image of Steve's disappointed face from flashing through his mind. His son had been a hero that any father would be proud of and Tony couldn't disgrace his memory, or let him down, by taking the coward's way out. So Tony kept living. Or rather, he kept existing. There was a difference.

His personality changed, outwardly anyway. He had lost too many people and felt too much pain, so he started pushing everyone away and kept them at arms length. He began wearing masks of sarcasm and arrogance to hide his true self. He played the part of the uncaring, self-absorbed jerk. No one wanted to be friends with someone like that, and that was fine by him. People he let get close got hurt. His parents, his wife, his son. No, Tony was done letting people into his heart only to lose them. So he built an unsavory persona and the media ate it up. He was the hotshot, spoiled, jerk who got whatever he wanted, drank on a regular basis, and took home anything in a skirt.

The only true part of that was the drinking. He did plenty of that. The rest, though, was just an act. Tony wasn't uncaring. In fact, he cared too much. That was why he had to keep people away, and as for the girls, yeah he took them home. And they slept in a guest bedroom while he was in his lab; usually drinking and sometimes reading the letter that was for his eyes only and that he had completely committed to memory. Tony never slept with those women. They weren't his type. He had never just wanted a pretty face. He had always been attracted to women of substance, and besides that, he was still too in love with his late wife to look at another woman.

However, despite Tony's best efforts to keep everyone out, Rhodey and Pepper somehow inched their way into his heart. He still kept them from getting too close with his masks of sarcasm and witty retorts. He knew they still saw through them and got glimpses of the real him from time to time, but he didn't let them see more than snippets. He walled the rest away, where it remained until he was completely alone. That's when the pain could easily be seen on his face and his eyes became windows to his battered soul.

Then Afghanistan happened. Tony had had every intention of doing absolutely nothing for his captors until they finally killed him. He may not have been willing to commit suicide but that didn't mean he had to fight to survive either. But then Yinsen had to knock some sense into him and the man's words sounded so much like something Steve might have said, that Tony could do nothing but heed them.

Tony told his captors he would build the missile, then began work on his suit, and for the first time in a long time, Tony let someone in. He let Yinsen become a friend. When Tony had asked Yinsen if he had a family, Tony had wanted to believe the man when he said that his family was in a nearby village. However, Tony could see something in the man's eyes, something that was all too familiar, and he knew. Just like Yinsen knew when Tony simply shook his head when asked if he had a family. Neither of them voiced it, and they never spoke of that conversation again, but they both knew the truth because they both carried the same pain. A kind of pain that is easy to spot in someone else when you yourself carry its weight.

After that, Tony grew even closer to Yinsen. They were kindred spirits. People always told those who were in pain that they 'understood,' but Yinsen was the only person Tony knew who really could truly understand his pain, and that made the older man closer than a friend. Their shared imprisonment had made them friends but their shared pain had made them brothers.

Tony should have known better. Everyone he let in, always ended up being taken away from him, and those he had lost before hadn't been in the clutches of terrorists. He should have known better than to let himself care about his fellow prisoner, but Tony had pushed people away for so long only to meet someone who had been where he was, so he had let himself care about the life of someone else. Really it shouldn't have been a surprise when Yinsen died. Tony should have seen it coming. The sinking feeling he got when Yinsen picked up the rifle and ran into the tunnel should have been fair warning, but Tony wanted to believe that things could be different and that the ones he cared about didn't always have to die.

But sure enough, when he finally made it to the entrance to the tunnel, there was Yinsen, dying. That was when Yinsen finally admitted out loud that his family was dead and he gave Tony a knowing look when he said it. It was a look that conveyed so much, his knowledge that Tony had known Yinsen's family was dead, as well as his knowledge that he wasn't the only one who had lost a family. Then Yinsen made Tony promise to do something with his life, and, of course, Tony couldn't deny him something like that.

Even as more pain and new wounds were added to those that Tony already carried in his heart, a new conviction also stole over him. He was done merely existing. He was going to do something that could make Yinsen and Steve proud. No more drinking and pushing people away and drowning in his sorrow. Tony was going to make his life mean something. Steve had given his life to save the world and the future. Yinsen had given his life to save Tony's. Now it was time for Tony to start doing some saving.

When he got home, he immediately put a stop to the weapons manufacturing that had begun with his father and had increased alarmingly after Steve's death when Tony had all but given the reins over to Obadiah and turned his back on the company. Tony hadn't cared about the company at that time. He hadn't cared about anything then, but after Afghanistan, things changed and Tony stopped the weapons altogether. He knew Obadiah had been behind the weapons manufacturing, and he knew the older man was also probably how the terrorists had gotten a hold of Stark weapons.

Stane may have been his father's friend, and at one time, he may have been a good man, but when Tony had first taken over the company, he hadn't been so blind as to have missed Stane's ambitions and somewhat blurry morals. However, Tony had been in control of the company so it hadn't mattered much in the beginning. After Tony gave up his responsibilities, though, Stane's already shaky morals had apparently disappeared altogether. On some level, Tony admitted that he had been suspicious that Stane wasn't entirely on the level but, once again, he hadn't cared. It wasn't until he got back from Afghanistan that he opened his eyes and saw how far Stane, and the company both, had fallen.

He also wasn't surprised that Stane wasn't happy with his decision to stop the weapons. Tony knew Stane had the potential to be a very dangerous man and he saw how the older man eyed his arc reactor with a greedy, money-seeking glint in his eye. Tony hadn't realized just how dangerous he really could be, though. In all honesty, Tony hadn't expected Stane to end up being the one behind his capture in Afghanistan or for the the man to build his own suit. Tony thought he had been careful, but when Stane got the jump on him and paralyzed him before stealing the arc reactor out of his chest, Tony realized he hadn't been careful enough. However, as it turned out, Stane would never have the chance to get the jump on him again. He beat Stane, and almost died in the process.

Although Tony had decided to do something with his life and not just lay down and die if the opportunity arose again, he still wouldn't have been opposed to the idea of dying if it was 'in the line of duty' and if he had done all he could to prevent it. But as much as he may have been ready for death, it seemed fate either still had work for him, or it was extremely cruel.

Either way, Tony survived the arc reactor overload and then he had that stupid press conference. He had intended to keep his identity as Iron Man a secret, but as he stood before those reporters, he couldn't help but think about the persona he had sold to them, how everyone believed him to be a worthless, narcissistic jerk, and for a moment, he just wanted people to see a sliver of himself. He wanted them to know that he did care and that he wasn't just a spoiled, rich guy. He wanted people to see him as a hero or, at the very least, as someone who was worth looking up to, and dying for.

He wanted others to see him as someone that Steve and Yinsen could be proud of. So he said the words.

"I am Iron Man."

And those four words would end up changing his life.

* * *

**A/N Please take a minute and leave me a review and let me know if you are enjoying this story. :)**


	4. Iron Man 2 & The Avengers

**A/N So, an exciting week for me and my family. I became an Aunt! I now have a tiny little niece and I can't wait until she's old enough to start introducing her to the awesomeness that is The Avengers! :D**

**Big thanks to those who reviewed last chapter! I'm glad you guys are all enjoying this story so far. I always love it when people enjoy my work! :)**

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_**Agent Ruby Red**_

**Iron Man 2 &amp; The Avengers**

After the "I am Iron Man" stunt and Nick Fury's little "you're not the only hero" speech, Tony set out to change his persona a bit. He didn't completely drop his masks and he still kept most people at arms length. Old habits die hard after all. But he did start letting Pepper and Rhodey see a little more of himself. He let his masks drop every now and then, and let them see his true emotions. He let them see that he really did care about people other than himself, and that he really did want to help people and do good.

Tony eased up on his drinking and he let Pepper get a little closer by telling her some things. He knew if he gave himself a chance, he could fall in love with her. She was similar to his late wife in that she never let him get away with anything and she wasn't afraid to stand up to him, but, at the same time, she was very different from his wife. She didn't look like his wife who had been tan and dark-haired. So Pepper was his type, but she wasn't a replica to replace his wife.

Tony still loved his wife, but he also felt like maybe it would be okay to move on just a little. So he shared some things with Pepper, things about his childhood, about his fondest memories of his parents, and other small things. He never talked about Steve, though. Steve was still Tony's first thought in the morning and his last at night, but Tony never talked about him, vaguely or otherwise; not even to Jarvis.

Pepper and Rhodey knew nothing of the son that he had lost, no one did. He may have begun to open up to Pepper, but Steve was still very much a raw and private subject that he wasn't ready to share with anyone and maybe he never would be ready. If he never told Pepper about Steve, Tony could only hope that she could understand why he kept such a big secret. That is, if she ever found out. Since Steve had been before Jarvis' time, no one, including the AI, knew about him. Tony was the only person still alive who knew he had had a son, let alone that that son had been the famous Captain America. Tony was nothing if not good at covering his tracks. The press weren't nearly as good as they thought they were and no one knew just how good Tony was at keeping secrets. If there was something he didn't want the world to know, then they didn't.

When Tony discovered that he was dying from the palladium poisoning it was bittersweet. Bitter because he was finally living again and he was growing closer to Pepper, but kind of sweet because, at long last, he would finally be with Steve again and this way he could face death proudly. He had tried, truly he had. He had searched and thought and explored all avenues. There really wasn't a way out this time. So he accepted his death. Tony did not give up, though, and that was something he could be proud of. His death wouldn't be cowardly and it wouldn't be because he wanted it. It would be because there really wasn't a fix this time.

But once again, fate had to intervene. He had been pretty sure 'Natalie' wasn't who she claimed to be (PAs didn't usually have those kinds of fighting skills), but he had been dying so it hadn't mattered to him that she might not be all she appeared to be. He truly hadn't seen the fact that she worked for Fury coming, though. She and Fury just wouldn't let him die in peace. They had to give him a shot that would "take the edge off," then they had to put him on lock-down until he found a way to fix the problem.

So, once again, fate, aided by Natalie/Natasha, Fury, and Tony's father, had denied him death, and Tony had no choice but to go along with it. He had promised Yinsen, Steve, and himself that he wouldn't give up anymore. And even if he had been prepared to die, suddenly finding out he wasn't going to, and also coming so close to losing Pepper, made him decide to take a chance on life. He kissed Pepper, and she kissed him back. Vanko was taken care of, that idiot Hammer was being an idiot in prison somewhere, Tony built a self-sustaining, energy-efficient tower, and things were good for a while.

Until Phil Coulson walked into his tower and handed him, or rather handed Pepper (the last thing he had let himself be handed was a letter from 1943. He didn't like to be handed things), an electronic dossier. Pepper had already left with Phil by the time Tony opened it and looked at it, which had actually been for the best. There would have been no way Tony could have hidden his reaction as his eyes landed on the picture of a blond-haired young man in a red, white, and blue uniform, hovering among all the other information.

Tony's body and mind simultaneously froze as he stared at the photo, hope, joy, and years of pain and loss all battling for control inside of him. He reached out a trembling hand to scroll to the information he wanted, _needed, _to read. The personnel file for one Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, came up but Tony didn't read anything about his achievements or his actions. He already knew all about that. Instead, Tony honed in on the paragraph detailing the discovery of the super soldier, frozen in ice, aboard the crashed plane, and how they discovered he was still alive and revived him from his stasis. All it took was for Tony to read the word 'alive' and his knees buckled.

He let himself fall to the floor where he knelt on his knees, his arms wrapped around his upper body as tears of joy streamed down his face. His chest hurt, but unlike when he had read Steve's letter five years before, it wasn't a pain of loss. It wasn't a dying pain, it was a healing pain, as the wounds on his heart began to heal and the pain he had carried for so long began to lift. Not all of the pain left, he would need to see his son, hold him, touch him, tell him how much he had missed him, and how much he loved him before Tony could fully believe that it was real and not some cruel dream or trick.

In the back of his mind, Tony also knew that the pain would never entirely leave him. Steve may be alive but those years without him were not erased. The pain he had felt was not magically wiped away just because Steve was back. For five years Tony had lived with the pain and knowledge that his son was dead and no matter what happened, a parent never, ever fully gets over losing their child. Some part of that pain would always be with him, just as the memory of that feeling would always be a part of him.

But now it become just that, a memory. Because his son was alive, and if Tony was to believe the information in front of him, he would see him soon.

**)()()(**

When Steve woke up after the plane crash, he knew something was wrong. History said he didn't survive and yet he was alive. He didn't do anything, _anything _different from the history books, so that could only mean one thing, Hydra had captured him. The world never had a record of Captain America surviving. They never had a record of Captain America escaping Hydra. He was going to die by their hands. They were probably going to take all of his blood; bleed him dry to find the secret of the serum, then dump his body in the ocean or somewhere it would never be found.

That's why he ran. He didn't have anything to lose after all. When he broke out of the fake room it only confirmed his suspicions. All around him were people in uniforms, sleek walls and floors, and high tech gadgets. There was only one organization that had things like that in the forties.

Hydra.

Steve didn't hesitate. He didn't slow down at the shouts behind him. He made a b-line to the nearest exit and it wasn't until he was outside that the truth hit him. He burst out of the building and into New York. _His _New York. He was in the middle of Times Square, complete with huge screens and modern cars. And the best part was, it didn't look much, if any, different than how he remembered it. He was back in his time and it was at least close to the time he had left. Possibly even the same year. He could only hope.

Finding out he was back did nothing to make Steve stop, though. If anything, it made him even more determined to run. But instead of running away from those that had him, he was running toward the one person he wanted to see above all others; the one person he never thought he'd be able to see again. His dad. Steve's biggest dream was suddenly attainable and he was going to take advantage of it. He put on every bit of his serum induced speed and flew up the street. Unfortunately, he didn't get far.

Out of nowhere, men with guns appeared and surrounded him. A tall man, wearing a trench coat and an eye patch, stepped forward and said something about Steve not being in his time anymore. He wanted to say 'duh' so bad it wasn't even funny, and not just because he could finally use the slang he grew up with without anyone looking at him strangely. Steve knew he wasn't in the forties anymore. He also knew that the one-eyed man was wrong. He wasn't 'not in his time anymore.' After two years, he actually _was_ in his time. After two long years of living in the past and fighting in a war that wasn't supposed to be his, he was _home_.

But he didn't say 'duh.' He didn't tell them he was from that time. He didn't tell them his dad was Tony Stark. He didn't know who those people were. He didn't know what their agenda was. And to be honest, he didn't believe for a second that they would believe him. So he kept quiet. He played the part of the WWII hero, awed and overwhelmed by the future. He bided his time, and waited for a chance to escape from those keeping an eye on him so he could slip away, disappear, and finally get back to his dad.

The chance never came, but as it turned out, Steve didn't have to escape, because Fury walked into the gym one day and unknowingly offered to bring his dad right to him.

* * *

**A/N Okay, now we're starting to get somewhere. Things are going to start picking up some now that we're finally getting into _The Avengers_. Feel free to please leave a review and let me know what you think! :)**


	5. The Avengers Cont'd

**A/N So... school started back this week. Yay (that's pure sarcasm in case you weren't sure :P). This week was kind of crazy with less than ideal amounts of sleep, some major issues with my class schedule, and more than a few moments of panic and desperation before I finally got everything fixed, but hopefully things will start to settle down now. School won't adversely affect update frequency though. I promise you guys won't be left hanging for very long, no more than a week at a time between updates. **

**Thanks so much to my awesome reviewers! I had one anonymous reviewer so I couldn't respond via PM so I'll just say "Thanks!" here. **

_**Poppyseed Pomphrey**_

_**patty cake rocks**_

_**dany1114**_

_**spycat123**_

_**Agent Ruby Red**_

_**Ophelia Lokisdottir**_

_**Book girl fan**_

_**Guest**_

_**Phoenixhp5t3**_

_**RoxasGuyXIII**_

**Now for Steve and Tony's reunion. Sort of. :P**

**The Avengers Cont'd**

Steve had to admit, the helicarrier was pretty impressive. He had been serious when he told Fury that he couldn't be surprised. After all, he was from that era and was the son of Tony Stark. Technology didn't surprise or impress him very often. That is, technology that wasn't made by his father. His whole life, Stark tech had never ceased to amaze him. So when he saw the helicarrier he was surprised that, well, that he was surprised. Then he found out that Tony had had a hand in designing the helicarrier, and, suddenly, Steve wasn't so surprised anymore. Only his father could envision something so amazing. Steve still gave Fury the ten bucks, though. If nothing else, the director had definitely thrown something at him that he hadn't seen before.

So far, Steve had met Agent Phil Coulson, Dr. Bruce Banner, and Agent Natasha Romonoff. Agent Coulson was friendly enough if a bit on the creepy-stalker-fan side. Natasha seemed nice enough if a bit mysterious and intimidating. And Dr. Banner was a bit reserved, maybe shy, but Steve got the feeling that he was a kindhearted type person. The scientist actually reminded Steve of his father in some ways and Steve could easily see himself becoming friends with the man.

Speaking of his father, as Steve was looking over the bridge of the helicarrier and reading some of the monitors (most of which he actually understood), the person at the forefront of his mind was his father. He found himself feeling unnecessarily anxious and he wasn't really sure why. Maybe he was subconsciously worried his father might be different somehow, after five years.

Obviously Tony had changed at least somewhat. A person doesn't make an almost invincible suit of armor and become a hero without changing somehow. After all, Steve himself had changed a lot and it had only been two years for him. He was just worried that Tony might have changed so much that he wasn't still Steve's dad. Steve knew his worries weren't really logical or rational, but emotions so rarely were and five years was a long time. Steve just wasn't sure what was going to happen, or how either of them would react when they finally saw each other again.

Despite his worries, though, Steve couldn't wait to see Tony again. Between his anticipation and his nerves, Steve felt like climbing the walls, but he made himself stay calm and still as he tried, and failed, to keep his mind from imagining all the worst things that could happen when he finally saw his father again.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to discover which one of his scenarios was the closest to reality, as the SHIELD personnel got a line on Loki and Steve was sent to Berlin to deal with him.

**)()()(**

Tony was suited up and just about to leave for the helicarrier when Jarvis picked up a SHIELD communication (of course, it was encrypted but that didn't mean anything when it came to Jarvis), which informed Tony that Loki had been found in Germany. Tony mentally cursed at the delay to seeing his son but knew that he had to go help. From everything he had read, SHIELD agents were going to be in over their heads with the dark haired alien.

So, like it or not, he rocketed off toward Berlin.

**)()()(**

Steve was discovering the saying 'history repeats itself' was actually pretty spot on as he arrived in Germany to see yet another crazy conqueror standing over a bunch of innocent people. Same song, different century.

He couldn't help but be inspired by the old man's courage in standing up to a powerful dictator who could easily kill him. Steve also wholeheartedly agreed with the brave man's words. There always were men like that. Steve only had a minute for his admiration, though, before he leaped into action to protect the old man. Then he traded words with Loki, saying something strong and Captain America-y but not really paying attention to his words so much as giving a rote response. He wasn't really in the mood for the 'banter with the bad guy' bit. He really wanted to just take the guy down so he could get back to his own problems. However, as he fought his opponent, Steve began to think he might not be able to take care of the guy on his own. Loki was much more resilient and powerful than he appeared at first glance.

So it was a bit of a relief, as well as a thrill, to suddenly hear a familiar song that most people wouldn't expect Steve Rogers, of all people, to know. But he had grown up listening to AC/DC, so he knew his father had just arrived. A suspicion that was proven true as two beams of energy blasted into Loki.

Steve had read the file on 'Iron Man.' He knew about the suit and his father's hero status, but that didn't make it any less awe inspiring for Steve, as Tony swooped in and landed with a flourish (he always had been a showman) next to him. The suit was amazing, a true masterpiece and easily his father's best work.

Steve's appreciation of the technology was greatly tempered, however, by his pounding heart and racing mind as he wondered if their big reunion was about to take place, right there in an empty courtyard, in Berlin, and in front of a crazy villain. He knew it wasn't the time or place for such a thing but that didn't stop him from feeling some level of disappointment when all he received from his father was: "Captain."

**)()()(**

To say it was a shock for Tony to arrive in Germany to see his son locked in a fight with enemy number one, would be an understatement. He felt great pride at seeing his son in action but he also felt fear for Steve's safety. Intellectually, he knew that Steve had fought his share of powerful villains and that if he survived seventy years in ice then he wouldn't be easy to kill, but no amount of 'intellectual' could override the mindset of a parent. So if Tony hit Loki with a little heftier blast than he had originally planned, well he had good reason.

It was all Tony could do to not grab his son in a bear hug, but it wasn't the right place and he had a criminal to deal with, so Tony Stark, the master of words, said the only thing his very unhelpful brain could seem to come up with.

"Captain."

**)()()(**

Tony had every intention of grabbing Steve and never letting him go the second they were on the quinjet and in the air, but he never got the chance. He had pulled off his helmet and had opened his mouth to speak, when a mighty clap of thunder shook the jet and caused Loki to flinch.

He had a feeling that someone like Loki wouldn't be afraid of simple thunder, and anything that could inspire fear in someone like Loki was cause for concern.

"You afraid of thunder?" Tony snarked, covering up his worry with sarcasm, like he always did.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows."

No sooner had Loki spoken, than something or some_one_ hit the top of the jet, shaking the craft.

What happened next, was basically a blur. One minute Loki was there, and the next, his brother had shown up and they were both gone.

Tony was not happy about his reunion with his son being interrupted yet again. He threw on his helmet and marched toward the exit. He heard Steve call out in his 'Captain' voice that they needed a plan. Years of hiding behind sarcasm and wit had made quick comebacks habit for Tony and without even thinking, he threw back a witty retort just before jumping out of the jet to fly after the two Asgardians.

**)()()(**

Steve's thoughts swirled as he fell through the night sky after leaping out of the jet. As he had feared, his father was definitely different. He had only been around his father for a few minutes and had barely spoken to him, but Steve could tell Tony was different. He just didn't know how different yet.

Steve understood why his father didn't acknowledge him and all of, well, their baggage (there really wasn't a better way to put it), back in Berlin and he even understood that they didn't have time to talk before Thor showed up, but Tony's cocky attitude and his sarcasm was something that was new. He had not been like that before Steve 'left.'

"I have a plan, attack."

Those words more than anything, gave Steve pause. For his father to flippantly throw sarcasm at him and treat him just like everyone else, made Steve insecurely wonder if his father had moved on in his life or if, maybe, he was just continuing to maintain the public image of not having a son as he had all of Steve's life.

Steve sincerely hoped it was the latter as he pulled the rip cord on his parachute.

**)()()(**

A few minutes after leaving the plane, Tony found Thor standing on a rock outcropping talking to his brother. Well, Tony wasn't really in the mood for indulging family reunions since his own was continuously interrupted. So, without any remorse, he slammed into Thor and sent them both crashing to the forest floor.

After that, Tony may or may not have made a few slightly stupid remarks which resulted in him and Thor destroying part of the forest. Then Steve, ever the mature one, showed up and broke up the fight. Then he proceeded to prove that he was Tony's son as he also said something stupid which resulted in the destruction of the rest of the forest. Like father like son.

**)()()(**

In hindsight, perhaps he shouldn't have told Thor to put the hammer down. At least it was an unpopulated area so no one got hurt. And it had gotten the job done. The fight had ended and they finished transporting Loki to the helicarrier. Somehow, though, Steve didn't feel very secure in that knowledge. What kind of bad guy sits around watching the good guys fight it out, patiently waiting to be taken back into custody? And the pleased smile on Loki's face as he was led through the corridors and into his cell didn't put Steve any more at ease.

Steve only halfway listened to Loki and Fury's conversation, his mind elsewhere. He vaguely remembered discussing strategy and game plans with the others but he was mostly mentally not present as his thoughts dwelt on his father. They had all arrived back on the helicarrier together but in the chaos, had gotten separated and now, Steve was on the bridge. He knew his father would show up there eventually, and all his nerves and doubts from before came rushing back, making it impossible for him to sit still.

He stood and wandered over to the screens in the middle of the room and faced the helicarrier's windshield, wishing the external doors were open so he could have something to look at. So lost in his thoughts was he about the lack of a view, that he almost jumped when he suddenly heard his father's voice as the genius entered the room.

Steve turned around, his eyes locking with Tony's, and time seemed to slam to a halt.

* * *

**All right, even though I have no remorse over it, it's time to let me know how much you hate me for ending the chapter right there. :P I promise the next chapter will have the big reunion, but until then, please review! :)**


	6. Reunion

**A/N Thank you guys so much for the reviews! Last chapter got more reviews than any other chapters so far! :D And when I checked my email during one of my classes to see a bunch of reviews in my inbox, I was so excited I nearly freaked out, which would have been more than a little hard to explain to my professor and my classmates. :P**

**Now for the part that I had in my head since before I even started writing this story, The Big Reunion! Yay! I worked really hard on it to try to do it justice so I really hope you guys like it! :)**

**Thanks again to my awesome reviewers!**

_**patty cake rocks**_

_**19fangirl97- **_**Thanks for the review! The answer to your first question is yes and that will happen in the next chapter. As for your second question, this chapter should answer that. **

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_**anonymous- **_**Thanks for the review! Sorry about the mean cliffie but I just couldn't resist. As for your question, I think this chapter should help answer that. **

_**thegrlofdreams345**_

**Reunion**

Frustrated, was not the word for what Tony was feeling. From the moment he had found out that Steve was alive, no, from the moment Steve disappeared five years before, Tony had wanted nothing more than a reunion with his son. And now, he had seen his son, had stood beside him, had even talked to him, but due to the situations getting in the way, he hadn't been able to _talk_ to his _son_. He had talked to Captain America but he hadn't talked to Steve, to his son. It seemed that fate, and Norse warriors from another planet, were bound and determined to keep him and Steve from having the reunion they so deserved.

It had been one thing after another and Tony was fed up. He was going to talk to his son, hug his son, _reunite _with his _son_. And this time, nothing was going to get in his way, no fights, no squabbling Norse alien brothers, and definitely not the SHIELD agent that Tony might grudgingly call friend.

Phil was waiting for him when Tony landed on the helicarrier after the fight with Thor in the woods. Tony unsuited as the agent began, basically, chatting with him. Tony would have liked nothing more than to brush the man off, but he did, albeit very grudgingly, consider the man kind of a friend so he talked to him and let him 'show the way to the bridge' even though Tony could find his way around the helicarrier blindfolded. But as they leisurely strolled along, the urge to shake the man and tell him to walk faster was nearly overwhelming. And yet, as Tony's impatience grew, so did his nervousness.

He couldn't stop the stupid 'what if' questions from running through his mind. What if Steve was different? Well, obviously he was different. Even aside from the whole serum thing, war changes people. But what if Steve was too different? What if he had moved on? What if the young man he knew as his son, wasn't the one they found in the ice?

Those were questions that Tony didn't have the answer to and he wasn't sure whether he wanted the answers, but want them or not he was going to get them as soon as he stepped foot on the bridge. They were fresh out of distractions and interruptions. This was all going to be settled, one way or another.

As he and Phil finally entered the bridge, Tony quickly said something (that later he wouldn't be able to remember) to wrap up the conversation that he had been having, completely on autopilot, with the agent. Then he turned his attention to Steve and stopped in his tracks as his son turned around and their eyes met.

Time seemed to slow down as a world of communication passed between them. Steve searched Tony's eyes for any sign that his father wanted to keep him a secret, for any sign that everything could be okay again, for any sign that his father was still his father. Tony searched for any sign that his son was still the man he had known, for any sign that his son wanted to pretend they didn't know each other, for any sign that his son was still his son.

Tony found the answers he had been so hoping to find and time resumed its normal pace as he closed the distance between Steve and himself. Steve saw what he needed to see in Tony's eyes and as Tony began to move, Steve did as well and met him halfway.

Without hesitation, Tony threw his arms around his son and felt Steve eagerly return the embrace. Tony couldn't believe it. He kept expecting to wake up to find it had all been a dream; that he wasn't really holding his son in his arms after so long. Tears flooded his eyes and it took every ounce of will to keep them from falling. He wanted to be strong and collected for Steve, but no matter how hard he tried, a few stray tears still found their way out of the corners if his eyes to soak into the shoulder of Steve's suit.

Steve, on the other hand, didn't even try to hold back his tears as they unashamedly streamed down his face. The two men held onto each other tightly, their hands fisted into each other's clothing as if they were afraid they would somehow be ripped apart or lose each other all over again if they ever let go.

Both of them were reeling from the surreality of it all, overwhelmed by happiness as they clung to each other, and completely oblivious to the curious and strange looks they were receiving from those around them. At that moment, no one, and nothing else, existed. It didn't matter that they were hugging and crying in the middle of the bridge while spies, government agents, and even an alien and a genetically altered scientist looked on, partly curious and partly uncomfortable. Especially those who even remotely knew Tony Stark, because Tony Stark did _not_ hug people, and he definitely never cried a single tear, let alone several. Either they had all majorly missed something, or something was very wrong. Maybe they had all been poisoned, or maybe Loki had messed with Tony's mind somehow.

After a minute, Tony pulled back and cupped Steve's face in his hands, looking over his son who was no longer the eighteen year old boy he had lost but was now a twenty year old man, but at the same time, he was still the son Tony remembered, just older and more mature, and someone Tony was so completely proud of he couldn't even put it into words.

"I've missed you more than you'll ever know," Tony whispered and kissed Steve on the forehead before hugging him again.

"I've missed you too. _So_ much," Steve said through the lump in his throat, his words muffled by Tony's shirt as Steve buried his face in Tony's shoulder.

"I am _so_ proud of you," Tony said, pulling back to look at him again, his words causing a huge smile to spread across Steve's face amidst his tears. "Look at you," Tony said, gently wiping away Steve's tears. "You're bigger than me now. How is that fair?" He chuckled, sniffing and fighting back a new wave of his own tears.

"You can thank Grandpa for that," Steve said with a watery chuckle, eliciting a similar one from Tony.

Tony pulled his son back into his arms, his hand coming to rest on the back of Steve's head as he reveled in the feeling of his son, safe, and _alive, _in his arms. He was having trouble deciding what he wanted to do more, hold his son, or just look at him and drink in the wonderful sight of him.

"Are... we missing something?" Natasha was the one to finally ask what everyone was thinking.

Finally remembering they weren't alone, Tony reluctantly released Steve again and wiped the tears from his own face before turning around.

"It's good to know I've managed to keep at least one secret from you, Agent Romonoff," Tony said, and if his voice sounded a bit more rough than flippant, no one commented.

"What secret?" Fury demanded, just as curious and in the dark as everyone else but trying not to let it show too much.

Tony sent a look at Steve, trying to gauge if his son was okay with him telling everyone who he was. Steve didn't have a problem with them knowing who his father was. In fact, he had had to keep it secret for so long that he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. The whole point of keeping his parentage a secret was so he wasn't in the limelight. It wasn't like he could really fly below the radar anymore, now that he was the great Captain America. Might as well reveal it all. Besides, it would be kind of hard to explain away their little hug fest without telling the truth. At that point, the cat was pretty much out of the bag.

So Steve gave his father a nod and Tony rested his hand on Steve's shoulder as he turned back to Fury, not missing the badly concealed curiosity on the faces of everyone on the bridge.

"Steve is my Son," Tony said simply, and the sight of a roomful of jaws hitting the floor was actually pretty comical.

"He's... what?" Coulson asked. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No joke," Tony said.

"Very funny, Stark. You got us," Natasha said before turning to Steve. "He put you up to this, didn't he?"

"It really isn't a joke," Steve said. "I was born Steven Anthony Stark in nineteen eighty-nine."

"But that's impossible," Bruce said. "You were in World War Two."

"There was a lab accident," Steve said. "An experiment went wrong."

"We were trying to create a force field generator using the tesseract as a power source," Tony explained.

"Something went wrong, the tesseract overloaded and I was hit with a blast of its energy. I was knocked out and when I came to, it was nineteen forty," Steve finished.

"You've used the tesseract before?" Fury asked, not happy about not having known about that.

"That's why I tried to warn you to leave the tesseract alone, Nick," Tony said seriously. "It's dangerous and unpredictable."

"You can say that again," Steve said. "Imagine my surprise when I'm in the nineteen forties fighting Hydra and I find out all their weapons are powered by the thing that caused me to end up in the forties to begin with."

"Okay, this kind of makes sense I guess," Bruce said. "I mean Loki used the tesseract to get to Earth, so obviously it can transport people from one place to another, but your time travel story still seems more than a little strange."

"And yet no one found it strange that the guy from the nineteen forties had no problem working a smartphone?" Steve asked, pulling out the device from his pocket and holding it up.

"Good point," Bruce said with a shrug.

"Wait. Even if all this is true, how come no one has ever heard of Tony Stark having a son?" Maria Hill asked, struggling to wrap her head around the new and more than a little shocking information.

"Because I know what it's like to be raised in the public eye. There was no way I was doing that to my kid," Tony said with a shrug, missing the several grudging looks of approval his words elicited as he squeezed Steve's shoulder and moved past him to nonchalantly play with the helicarrier's screens in an effort to ignore the scrutiny from the room's other occupants.

"So let me get this straight. Captain America, _the _Captain America, is the son of Tony Stark?"

"Try not to sound so disappointed, Phil," Tony said as he unobtrusively placed a bug on one of the panels.

"So you are father and son, but somehow the Captain traveled through time," Thor spoke up, trying to sort out the confusing conversation. "And yet he is here now."

"He got back the old fashioned way," Tony said.

"Yeah, if you consider being frozen in ice for seventy years, 'the old fashioned way,'" Steve snarked, earning some odd looks at how much he sounded like Tony in that moment.

"Okay. So, since you've been frozen for seventy years, that means when you were born, your future self was already frozen out there, so there were actually two of you at one point," Bruce said.

"It's a time paradox. Don't think about it too hard. It'll give you a headache," Tony said.

"Too late," Natasha said, rubbing her forehead. "Wait," she said holding up a hand and looking at Steve. "You were born in eighty-nine?" Steve nodded. "So you were born during the lost years."

"The lost years?" Steve asked.

"The seven years that Tony just disappeared. No one knew where he was and no one saw him until he showed back up and took over the company," Natasha explained.

Steve pursed his lips and glanced at his father who was making sure not to meet anyone's gaze. Those years were still a painful subject for Tony. Steve knew his father wouldn't talk about it but Steve couldn't just ignore the obvious questions in Natasha's words. At the same time, though, he wasn't sure how much he should share. It wasn't really Steve's story. However, Tony seemed to read his mind as he glanced at his son, meeting his eyes for a long moment before nodding ever so slightly, giving Steve permission to share whatever he wished.

"Yeah," Steve said, turning back to Natasha and trying to gather his thoughts. "My dad, wasn't really interested in the company back then."

She raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, choosing to ignore how strange it sounded for anyone, let alone Captain America, to call Tony 'my dad.' It was the rest of Steve's sentence that really caught her attention. Tony Stark hadn't been interested in his father's company? That was the exact opposite of the Tony that she knew. Steve sighed, knowing his next subject would be an uncomfortable and painful one for his father.

"My dad met my mom in college," Steve said, aware that he had the complete attention of everyone on the bridge. No one was even pretending to look busy anymore. They all wanted to know about 'the lost years.' "And they were married right out of college."

That earned more than one surprised look from the listeners. Tony Stark, married? Everyone was becoming more and more curious about Steve's mother.

"Almost a year later, I was born and the three of us lived together for the next several years. No one knew who my dad was, except my mom and he was happy being out of the spotlight. His parents were already gone and he didn't want the company so there wasn't really anything he was leaving behind," Steve said, aware that he was kind of stalling, not really wanting to bring up the next part of the story.

"So what happened?" Bruce asked curiously, knowing something must have. "If you guys were happy and Tony didn't want the company, then why did he end up taking it over?"

Steve was silent for a long moment and glanced at Tony again to see his father still refusing to meet anyone's eyes as he clenched his jaw in an attempt to keep the emotions swirling in his eyes off his face. Steve knew the conversation was dredging up a lot of pain for his father but he had to finish the story, and he also got the feeling that his father wanted the truth to finally be known, even if Tony didn't want to talk about it himself.

"When I was six, my mother was killed in a house fire," Steve admitted and several eyes darted to Tony, surprise and sympathy showing in some gazes. "We lost my mom, our house, everything. All my dad had left was me and he didn't have any choice but to go back. So he stepped back into the public eye and took over the company," he finished matter of fact.

The entire bridge of the helicarrier was dead silent. For a man who was in the media so much, there really were very few people who actually knew anything about him.

"So, uh..." Bruce stammered, trying to change the subject and alleviate the tension. "What year was it when you left, Steve?"

"Two-thousand seven," Steve answered, sending Bruce a grateful expression as the conversation became a bit easier as it steered away from old wounds and tense silence. "So, five years ago for you. But I ended up at the tail end of nineteen forty and the plane crashed in early nineteen forty-three, so for me it was only a little over two years."

"If it was five years ago, then you didn't know he was frozen in the ice," Natasha said to Tony. "So..."

"So, I thought he was dead," Tony said emotionlessly, his mask firmly in place and hiding all of his still raw emotions.

"You thought he died in the lab accident," Coulson concluded.

"No, I thought he died in World War Two," Tony corrected. "Once I came to after the explosion, I ran some scans and picked up some faint temporal signatures. From there, it wasn't too hard to figure out. He always did look a lot like Steve Rogers."

Everyone was quiet for a long moment, trying to wrap their heads around the fact that Tony Stark not only had been married and had a son, but lost his wife in a fire and for the last five years, had believed his son to be dead as well. It explained a lot about the man who constantly hid behind masks of sarcasm and self-centeredness, never letting anyone see the real him.

Everything they had just heard was painting a very different picture of Tony Stark than the media version. Could it be, that everything they all thought they knew about Tony Stark... was wrong?

"Is any of your reputation real at all?" Natasha suddenly asked.

She had been at the one party when Rhodey and Tony had destroyed his house but Tony had been dying at the time so he was allowed. All the other parties and tabloid things were just that, tabloid. Other than what reporters and the internet said, which were only rumors to begin with, there actually was no real proof that Tony's reputation was true. It wouldn't be the first time that the media twisted things around and created a false reputation about a public figure, and Natasha was beginning to suspect that Tony's media persona was actually way off base.

"Like most things, it's based in truth," Tony said with a shrug.

"But not much," Steve said, knowingly.

Since he had been back in his time, Steve had learned about the reputation Tony had gained in the last five years. However, he also knew his father. There was no way even half of that stuff was true.

Tony didn't reply to Steve's comment, but his silence was more telling than any agreement would have been.

"So, all the stories, the parties, the drinking, the women, it's all fake?" Phil asked incredulously, wondering how on earth everyone, including SHIELD, had missed so much.

"Not entirely," Tony said. "I went to parties. I drank. I took women home... where they slept, and nothing more, in a guest bedroom before being sent home the next morning," he admitted.

He was tired of being known for that reputation and ever since he became Iron Man, he had been trying to undo that persona. He was done letting everyone think the worst of him. It was past time to start setting the record straight. His off-putting reputation had served its purpose and Tony no longer needed or wanted it. And the last thing he wanted was for anybody to think that Captain America's father was such a horrible person. He didn't want to taint Steve in any way.

After Tony's admission, silence once more pervaded the bridge as the last of the selfish, jerk, playboy image in everyone's minds, shattered. Tony truly was not the man _anybody _had thought he was.

"The thing I don't get is why you needed the serum," Tony said, changing the subject as he turned to his son. "All the files said Steve Rogers was small and had a boatload of medical problems but you were fine before you left."

"The trip did something to me," Steve explained. "When I woke up I had lost muscle and bone mass, I was shorter than I used to be, and I had all kinds of health problems. The serum was the only way to get back to some semblance of normal. Fortunately, I knew exactly how to get it," he said with a grin. "Funny enough, I was actually named after Captain America. So technically, I was named after myself."

"I'm getting another headache," Natasha said with a sigh. Even she was starting to find all of the startling revelations to be a bit overwhelming.

"So what was the strangest part about traveling back in time?" Bruce asked, his voice carrying an undercurrent of excitement at the amazing scientific discovery that time travel was possible.

"Definitely meeting my grandfather, before my father was ever born, and being the same age as him. Although naming my own father was a close second."

"What?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just before I left for the plane, I was talking to Howard and he said he wanted to name his first born son after me," Steve said. "I told him Anthony was a better name. I also told him Edward was my father's name, so you got your first name from me, which I got from you, and you got your middle name from yourself," he said with a chuckle.

"Headache," Natasha said, rubbing her temples and not even trying to figure that last sentence out.

"Wait. If you knew the history, then you knew what would happen if you got on that plane right?" Phil asked.

Steve shrugged. "Yeah, I knew what was coming but I also knew I couldn't change it. I tried more than once to change the past but apparently my fate was written before I was even born."

"And you still went anyway?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah," Steve answered simply.

Tony couldn't hide the look of pride in his eyes as he squeezed his son's shoulder. It was one thing to be willing to sacrifice oneself and hope that there would be some kind of way out. It was entirely different when the person knew for an absolute fact what would happen, that they would die, and still choose to make the sacrifice anyway. There were very few people who could or would have done what Steve did.

"Now, shouldn't we be trying to figure out what to do about our guest?" Steve asked, trying to steer the conversation away from himself.

"I think that's a good idea, Captain," Fury said slowly.

He had been silent through most of the exchange, just listening to all the information and keeping his features carefully schooled into his normal stern expression. Inside however, he was just as stunned and shocked as everyone else, a fact he was not going to share with anyone. Fury, like so many others, had thought he had known Tony Stark. He had even believed he had known Tony, and things about Tony, better than most other people. To find out that he, Nick Fury, the man who knew everyone's secrets, didn't know any more about the billionaire than anyone else, was a bit staggering. Fury had never believed he would see the day that SHIELD met its match in anybody or any organization, but apparently he had never really taken Tony Stark into account. Fury had believed that no one could truly keep a secret if SHIELD dug deep enough. He had been wrong. And wasn't that a sobering thought?

"Dr. Banner, an agent will show you to a lab where you can get to work on finding the tesseract. Stark, go with him and help where you can," Fury ordered, feeling, but not showing, how unnerved he felt as Tony met his gaze and seemed to see everything Fury was trying to hide. The man who thought he was a master at keeping secrets was more than an open book to the man who truly was a master at keeping secrets. There was so much more to Tony Stark than anyone knew and it was in that moment that the realization hit Fury like a ton of bricks.

He had completely, totally, and laughably underestimated Tony Stark.

Tony broke his gaze with Fury and sent a look at Steve. The last thing he wanted was to leave his son. He had just gotten him back. Unfortunately, there was a situation at hand and lives were on the line and Tony was needed. Steve nodded and squeezed his father's arm. He didn't want to be separated from Tony either, but the young man knew they didn't have a choice. They had work to do and the sooner they got it done the sooner they could go home.

* * *

**A/N Well? Did I do the reunion justice? Please let me know! This was my favorite chapter to write and I really hope you guys liked it! Also, even though you've seen the big reunion, there's still much more to come in this story, including some angst and some Tony and Steve father/son moments, so be sure to keep coming back for more! :)**


	7. Fight

**A/N Thank you guys so much! I love reading all of your reviews! They make me extremely happy and inspire me amid the stress and chaos that school has been throwing me the last few weeks. So, thank you guys so much!**

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**Fight**

"I thought I had your dad figured out but I was way off," Natasha admitted to Steve as they walked up the hall toward the lab to check on Tony and Bruce. "I could tell he was carrying something, but I had no idea he had been through so much," she admitted.

"My dad has been through more than anybody should have to, especially not someone as great and loving as him," Steve said sadly before shaking himself from the heavy emotions. "So, uh, how do you know my dad, anyway?"

"I went undercover as his assistant last year, during the Hammer debacle," Natasha answered.

"Hammer?"

Natasha mistook his disbelief for confusion and started to explain.

"Justin Hammer. He's-"

"An idiot," Steve interrupted.

"Oh, you've met him then," she said.

"Yeah, he was an idiot five years ago and it doesn't sound like that's changed," he said as they walked into the lab.

"Not much," Tony said, overhearing the conversation. "If anything, his IQ has actually dropped."

"I'd say I'm not surprised but I honestly didn't think it could get any lower," Steve said.

"I know, right?" Tony said with a snort. "Just when you think you've seen and heard it all from him, he opens his mouth and surprises you all over again."

"So what was the Hammer debacle?" Steve asked.

"After I shut down the weapons department of SI, he became the US's main weapons developer," Tony said.

"That's a scary thought," Steve said, only half joking before realizing something. "Wait, that means you used to be the primary weapons developer. I thought we agreed on the whole weapons issue," Steve said with a look that clearly said they had, at one time, had an in depth conversation on the issue.

"Sometimes things change," Tony said quietly, not meeting Steve's eyes.

There was clearly a much deeper meaning to the two men's vague words but the others could only guess what the details were. They could tell, however, that whatever it was that they were talking about, was significant and involved many deep emotions. And also was apparently a private and touchy subject between them.

"Where are we on finding the tesseract?" Natasha asked.

"We're working on it," Tony said as he picked up a rod and proceeded to poke Bruce with it, causing the other man to yelp in surprise.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked, only half serious.

"Jury's out," Tony said cheekily before walking over and looking at one of the screens. "What I want to know is what Fury is keeping from us."

"You think he's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. He's _the _spy. His secrets have secrets."

"Loki did make that jab, 'a light for all mankind.' I think he was talking about Stark Tower," Bruce said.

"Stark Tower? That big, ugly-" Steve cut off as his father sent him a look. "Well, it's not the most attractive building you've ever constructed," he admitted with a shrug.

"I'll look into why SHIELD didn't bring me in on the project once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony said.

"Did you-" Natasha started angrily.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide."

"And you wonder why SHIELD doesn't want you around," Steve said with a smirk.

He turned and started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Tony asked.

"It's been years since I've been around any technology. I'm going to explore this place," Steve said, giving his father a meaningful look.

It may have been years since he had seen his son but Tony still knew him well enough to instantly understand what he was planning.

"Have fun, and feel free to tell me how impressed you are," Tony said, playing along.

"I have to go. You two keep working on finding the cube and Stark, shut down the hack or I'll make you suffer," Natasha said, and with that, she walked out with Steve, calling out a farewell to him as she turned and headed toward where Loki was being kept.

As soon as she disappeared around the corner, Steve headed straight for the restricted area of the helicarrier.

**)()()(**

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury asked, walking into the lab.

"I was kind of wondering the same about you," Tony shot back.

"You're supposed to be locating the tesseract."

"We are," Bruce piped up. "The model is locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit we'll have the location within half a mile."

"What is phase two?" Tony asked as his screen beeped.

"Phase two is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons," Steve said, slamming a huge gun down on a table. "The computer was moving a little slow for me."

"This does not mean-"

"What were you saying, Director?" Tony interrupted, turning his screen around to show the schematics for a tesseract powered weapon.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha as she and Thor entered the room.

"You want to think about removing yourself, Doctor?" she said.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," he shot back. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury said, pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor asked.

"Last year we had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury said. "We learned that not only are we not alone, we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor defended.

"But you're not the only ones out there are you?" Fury shot back.

"Your work with the tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor said. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"You forced our hand," Fury stated.

"Nuclear deterrent," Tony tossed out. "'Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune," Fury returned.

"I'm sure if my dad still made weapons he would be neck deep-" Steve started.

"Wait. Hold on. How is this about me?" Tony said defensively.

"Isn't everything?" Steve shot back.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.

"Excuse me. Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked.

The tension in the room escalated and everyone started talking over each other as an unnoticed, high-pitched whine emanated from the spear.

"You speak of control and yet you cause chaos," Thor said to Fury.

"That's his MO isn't it?" Bruce asked. "What are we, a team? We're not a team. We're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury said.

"Why shouldn't he let off a little steam?" Tony snarked, placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"You know why!" Steve said, irritably pushing the hand away. "Is everything a joke to you now?"

"Agent Romonoff, will you escort Dr. Banner back-"

"Where?" Bruce asked cutting off Fury. "You rented my room."

"The cell was just-"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I know. I tried," Bruce said, effectively silencing everyone in the room. "I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out!"

"Suicide is a coward's way out!" Thor said with disdain.

"No, it's not!" Tony defended. "Suicide isn't always a bad thing. For some people it's a release. Good for you Bruce. I never had the courage to go through with it myself."

"What! You considered it?" Steve cut in, clearly agreeing with Thor.

"Of course I did! I had just lost my son!" Tony snapped.

"I don't know why that should bother you. You never cared about me anyway," Steve said with a sneer.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tony asked angrily.

Rather than answering the question, Steve asked his own.

"Did you even try to find a way to get me back?" he challenged.

"Did you even try to avoid the plane crash? You could have bailed out or escaped or, I don't know, _not gone at all!"_ Tony shot back.

"And let all those people die?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"Those people weren't my son!" Tony screamed at him.

"I can't believe I never realized how selfish you are! I always thought you were a hero but you're not!" Steve yelled in disgust.

"Actually I am. Just read the paper. I'm the guy who flies around in a suit of armor and saves people," Tony said flippantly.

"Take away the suit and what are you?"

"Your father!"

"Howard would have been a better father than you!" Steve said in revulsion.

The backhanded slap that reverberated through the room carried enough force to snap Steve's head to the side and cause him to stumble back a step.

The entire room became completely silent as everyone froze. The slap to his face caused Steve's head to suddenly clear and he couldn't believe what he had just said to his father. He was sickened by his words and had to fight the urge to throw up. He hadn't meant a single word he had said.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one returned to himself by the slap, if the shocked expression on his father's face was anything to go by.

"Steve, I'm sorry," Tony said in horror at what he had just done. He had never struck his son before. _Ever_.

"No. No," Steve assured him, reaching out to gently grip his father's arm. "_I'm_ sorry. I don't know why I said any of that. I don't think like that at all."

"Me neither," Tony said.

He was about to say more when he was interrupted by Fury's voice.

"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter."

Steve and Tony turned to see Bruce holding the spear in his left hand, Natasha with her gun trained on him, and the rest of the people in the room all staring at the doctor worriedly.

Bruce looked at him with a confused expression before following Fury's gaze and looking down at his left hand, his eyes widening.

He all but threw the spear back on the table, quickly jumping back as if the staff might bite him.

"I don't remember picking it up," he said, looking at the others with wide, startled eyes.

Realization began to dawn on everyone that the spear had somehow taken emotions they were feeling, anger, sorrow, pain, fear, and twisted them around, causing them to say horrible things that none of them really meant.

A nearby console beeped and Bruce quickly moved over to it, thankful for the distraction. However, before anyone could say another word, an explosion blasted the room, sending all six of them flying as everything dissolved into chaos.

**)()()(**

The fight was over. The helicarrier was still flying, if only just. And they had managed to rescue one of their own... and lose three others. Both Bruce and Thor were MIA and Phil was dead. Everything had fallen apart and the rest of them were left trying to pick up the pieces. After Fury's harsh little speech about heroes, Steve had gone in search of his father and found him in the room where Phil Coulson had been killed, overlooking the empty spot where the cage had been before.

"Was he married?" Steve asked gently.

"No. There was a cellist. I think," Tony answered.

"I'm sorry. He seemed like a good guy."

"He was an idiot for taking on Loki alone," Tony said and Steve could tell there was no truth to his words. His dad was hurting and he was trying to hide it.

"He was doing his job," Steve said, knowing if he waited, his father would get to whatever was really bothering him.

"He was out of his league. He should have waited."

And Steve knew he had reached the heart of the matter. His father hadn't been there to save Phil and now he was blaming himself. His father had lost too many people in his life; his parents, his wife, for a time, his son, one friend to terrorists, and now another to a crazy madman. It made Tony want to try to save everyone but he couldn't and that ate him up.

"Sometimes there isn't a way out. Soldiers fall."

"We are _not _soldiers," Tony snapped, his eyes bright with unshed tears.

"I know," Steve said, his eyes so full of love and understanding.

All the fight went out of Tony and he scrubbed a hand across his face wiping away the one stubborn tear that had slipped down his cheek.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"It's okay," Steve said sincerely, reaching out and squeezing his father's arm affectionately. "Did you... did you really... think about it?" he asked hesitantly.

Tony dropped his gaze to the floor as he reached up and covered Steve's hand with his own.

"I thought about it," Tony confirmed, "but every time I did, all I could see was your disappointed face and it always kept me from actually going through with it. _You _always kept me from going through with it," he said, caressing his son's face. "I didn't mean what I said to Bruce, though. Suicide is never a good thing and it shouldn't be congratulated. If Bruce had managed to kill himself it would have been nothing short of a tragedy."

"It takes more guts to keep going when you just want to give up, than to take the permanent way out," Steve said softly but with conviction. "And that's not a reflection on Bruce. Lord knows he has a mountain of problems no one should have to deal with. I just know that it has to take more strength to wake up everyday, get out of bed, and somehow face the world than it would be to just pull a trigger or swallow some pills. The fact that you never gave in to that urge shows me just how strong you really are, Dad."

Tony looked up at his son, his eyes soft and warm. "Thanks, Steve," he said quietly, squeezing Steve's hand where it still rested on his arm.

"I wish you hadn't had to go through that. I wish I had been there for you. " Steve whispered.

"You were," Tony said softly. "I got your letter."

"You did?" Steve asked in slight surprise. He had hoped the letter would find its way to his dad but he hadn't been sure if it would.

Tony nodded. "About a week after you disappeared." A deep sadness entered Tony's eyes as he remembered that time.

"I'm sorry," Steve murmured.

It didn't take much for him to conclude that the letter would have been painful for his father. Steve hadn't really thought of that when he had written it and given it to Peggy. He had just been trying to contact his father one last time, try to give him some answers, to maybe give him some closure, to just say goodbye.

"No," Tony said quickly. "I'm glad you sent it. It was my last connection to you. I actually still have it and it's brought me comfort over the years."

Steve reached out and hugged his father tightly, trying to offer whatever reassurance and comfort that he could.

"I love you," Tony said with all his heart as he held his son tightly in his arms.

"I love you too, Dad," Steve replied, just as heartfelt.

After a long moment, Tony gently pulled back to look at his son, guilt filling his eyes as his gaze landed on his son's cheek. Thanks to the serum, there was no mark on Steve's skin but that didn't stop Tony from remembering the horrible feeling of his hand colliding with his son's precious face. Tony reached out and gently rubbed his thumb over the cheek he had slapped earlier.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"It wasn't your fault," Steve replied.

"I'm still sorry."

"So am I," Steve agreed, looking away in shame as he remembered the horrible words he had hurled at his father.

"He made it personal," Tony suddenly said.

"What?" Steve asked, looking back at Tony in confusion.

"That's Loki's point," Tony mused out loud. "He hit us all where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve said, starting to follow Tony's line of thought.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great but he knows he has to take us out to win. That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience. He's a full tilt diva. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-" Tony cut off as realization dawned on him.

"You know where he's going," Steve said, a grin creeping across his face.

"I know where he's going."

* * *

**A/N And another chapter done! Hopefully you guys enjoyed the father/son moments that I couldn't resist throwing in there. It's just so much fun to write Tony and Steve as father and son. So, next chapter will concern the big battle from Avengers and then I think there will probably only be one more chapter after that. Until then, please let me know what you thought! I always love hearing from you guys! :)**


	8. Fight Again

**A/N Okay, so we're winding down now. There will only be one more chapter after this. I know, it's almost over _already_! I don't want it to be done either but it's got to end eventually. **

**For this chapter I kept the events of the big fight in the movie mostly the same. I think the climactic scene in The Avengers was pretty close to perfect and I didn't want to reinvent the wheel. However, to keep you guys from having to read word-for-word what you've already seen in the movie, I only focused on some of the good parts and on areas that I changed, while glossing over other parts. Hope you guys like it! **

**Thanks so much to my awesome reviewers! I would love to reach 100 reviews on this story and thanks to you guys, we're getting close! :D**

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_**Guest- **_**I don't write cursing so I left that part out. **

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**Fight Again**

Tony rocketed toward his tower, his damaged thrusters cutting in and out as he went. He was really hoping that they held out just long enough for him to land safely on the tower. Otherwise he was going to find out what it was like to skydive without a parachute.

He could just see the headline now: _Iron Man plummets to death before battle begins._

Yeah, not his finest moment. Almost by sheer will alone, he made sure the suit made it the rest of the way to the tower. Then he did something stupid like shoot a force field protected machine that sent him flying backward. For a moment, a new headline ran through his mind.

_Iron Man plummets to death after shooting something he shouldn't._

Well, if Tony was good at anything it was thinking of trivial and/or inappropriate things at the most inopportune times. He never had mastered the concept of 'time and place.'

He managed to _not _plummet to his death, though, and regained control of his suit, giving up on the impenetrable shield and turning his attention to Loki. He touched down on the landing pad and removed his suit, then proceeded to taunt the Asgardian.

Tony didn't really care what he said as long as he distracted Loki long enough to get his armbands on and activate the mark six. Although, when the line about avenging the Earth came out of his mouth, he really wished someone besides Loki had been there to hear it. It sounded so profound, and heroic. Oh, well, it wasn't the first time his genius went unappreciated.

Then Loki tried to take over his mind, only to have the spear clink against Tony's arc reactor and prove completely ineffectual. It was one of only a handful of times Tony was actually glad to have the arc reactor in his chest. Then, of course, he made some kind of joke and the next thing he knew Loki had him by the throat and was throwing him _out the window!_

_Iron Man plummets to death after stupidly taunting an alien warrior from another planet._

He really needed to stop thinking about hypothetical headlines in serious situations. Besides the headline would probably be more along the lines of:

_Iron Man plummets to death because he couldn't keep his mouth closed. What else is new?_

But then the suit was wrapping around him and Tony was once again wishing there were other people there to see it, because he looked _so _cool falling through the air with the suit wrapping around him just in time for him to stop just feet above the innocent civilians and rocket back up to blast Loki in Phil's name.

How come no one ever saw him be awesome and heroic and yet, almost all of Captain America's great deeds were on film? He supposed it could be worse. At least it was his son who had all the fame and heroism. That by extension made him look good, right?

Then of course the tesseract machine just had to go and open a portal in space and let in a bloodthirsty alien army. Things could never be simple could they? Show up, fight bad guy, defeat bad guy, the end. No, instead, it had to be, show up, get thrown through window by bad guy, alien army comes through portal in space and... where was his backup?

Fat lot of good they were. And when they finally did decide to get around to showing up, they spent all of five seconds shooting enemies before managing to crash their plane and being forced to go on foot. Did Tony have to do e_verything_?

**)()()(**

In hindsight, Steve admitted that getting shot out of the sky within the first two minutes of the battle probably wasn't their most shining moment. But that thought pretty much got blasted out of his head at the sight of what looked like some kind of ugly, giant space whale.

"Dad, you seeing this?" Steve asked through the earpiece.

"Seeing, still working on believing," Tony replied. "Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Steve asked, wondering what his dad had planned.

"Just keep me posted."

From there, it was mostly a blur of explosions, chaos, and running, jumping, and leaping through the city as Steve ran to the cops and directed them on what to do. Fortunately, they were willing to listen to him... after he got through beating the crap out of a couple of aliens. But Steve figured that as long as it got the job done it didn't matter, and besides, he looked pretty cool doing it.

Once that was done, he made his way back to Clint and Natasha and helped them fight off a group of Chitauri before Thor flew in and finished off the last few. Steve was about to outline what little of a plan he had when who should show up but Bruce Banner. How his father knew the scientist would be coming, Steve didn't know.

"Dad, we got him."

"Banner?"

"Just like you said."

"Then tell him to suit up," Tony said. "I'm bringing the party to you."

**)()()(**

"We got it's attention. What was step two?" Tony asked Jarvis as he stared at the huge, flying whale thing that probably wouldn't mind eating him.

Fortunately, Tony didn't have to wait for Jarvis to come up with something as Steve informed him that Bruce had showed up.

"I'm bringing the party to you," Tony said as he rocketed toward the others.

"I don't see how that's a party," Natasha said as Tony, and the creature following him, came into view.

Tony couldn't really argue with her.

**)()()(**

"Doctor Banner, now might be a good time for you to get angry," Steve said as the thing drew closer.

He only half heard Bruce's response of, "That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry," as Steve was worriedly watching the whale creature gaining on his, very small in comparison, father.

Then Tony was darting out of the way as Bruce shifted into The Hulk and took out the monster with one punch. Steve had to admit, it was a pretty amazing sight to behold. Right up until the thing started to fall toward them. Fortunately, Tony was ready and blew the thing up before it could crush them.

Afterward, as Steve glanced around at the five others standing in a circle with him, he finally began to think that maybe they could win this after all. After such a rocky start, they were finally a team, at least for this one fight, and right then that was all they needed.

**)()()(**

"Call it, Steve," Tony said as more whale creatures flew through the portal.

Part of Tony found it a little weird to take orders from his son, while another part of him responded without hesitation to the confident and commanding tone of Steve's voice and followed without hesitation, but the overwhelming majority of Tony felt nothing but pride for the man his son had become. No father could be more fortunate than him.

**)()()(**

In a distant part of his mind, Steve found it a bit strange to give his father orders but he ignored that at the moment, as he slipped into the mindset of the commanding officer he had become in the war. He rattled off orders as he planed out his strategy in his head. After all of this was finished and everyone was safe again, then he could think about the strangeness of it all. But right then, there was a time and a place.

Although he was in the middle of fighting his own opponents, Steve couldn't possibly miss Thor's little lightning display and definitely couldn't help but be impressed. Anyone who could turn a building into a giant lightning rod, then rip through a bunch of enemies with said lightning, definitely deserved some respect.

"Captain, this isn't going to mean a thing if we don't get that portal closed," Natasha said.

Steve couldn't argue with that but he also had no idea how to close it.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," he said.

"Maybe it's not about guns."

Steve didn't know what she was thinking but he could tell she had an idea.

"If you want to get up there you're going to need a ride."

"I've got a ride," she said, glancing up at the alien sleds zooming by overhead. "I could use a boost, though."

"You sure about this?" he asked as he backed up a little.

"Yeah, it's going to be fun."

Steve apparently had a very different definition of fun, but to each his, or in this case, her own.

**)()()(**

Tony barely had time to be surprised to see Natasha riding on one of the sleds as he shot by, shooting enemies left and right as he went. He landed next to Steve and bounced a repulsor beam off his shield before rocketing away again, leaving his very capable son to continue the fight on the ground.

He shot up the side of a building, shooting several more aliens and zooming past Clint who was perched on the edge of the building, dodging laser blasts and shooting arrows into enemy after enemy. With his flight capabilities, Tony could zip around the area, keep track of his friends (when had he started thinking of them as friends?), and take out enemies as he went. So he had decided to keep an eye on the others and help where he could.

So far, he had three teammates accounted for and two to go. He heard a roar and spotted The Hulk on the back of one of the whales with Thor fighting along side him to bring the leviathan down. The six of them were finally starting to look and act like a team.

_Well sort of_, Tony mentally amended with a smirk as the whale carrying The Hulk and Thor, crashed into grand central Station and The Hulk punched Thor across the room.

Apparently, the threat of world domination was all that had been needed to bring the six of them together. If only they had known that sooner, they could have saved some time and some serious destruction to the helicarrier.

**)()()(**

Steve grunted as he slammed into the top of a car after being blasted through a window, but at least he had managed to save the hostages inside the bank. He slid off the car and paused a moment to catch his breath. He was getting tired and still there seemed to be no end in sight to the fighting. Steve was starting to wonder if they could pull this off. There were only six of them and they couldn't keep this up forever.

He sure hoped that whatever Natasha had in mind would pan out. Otherwise, all of their fighting might very well have been for nothing. And the six of them were all the type to never give up. If they couldn't stop the army, they would all die trying. Which meant that Steve could lose his life and his father right after finally getting both of them back again. Life really sucked sometimes.

**)()()(**

'Ew,' didn't even begin to describe Tony's little trip through the whale. The things he did for this planet.

And then 'ow' as he slammed into the ground, then got blasted by an energy beam. Yes, the things he did for this planet. Why was he doing this again? Oh, yeah, hero. Tony was beginning to figure out that being a hero didn't pay nearly well enough.

Things were starting to go downhill. Tony was still on the ground, his suit more than a little battered. The last he had seen of his son, Steve had looked about how Tony felt, worn and overwhelmed. Clint had been forced off the roof and had slammed through a window. Tony didn't know if the archer was okay or not. Natasha had reached the roof of Stark Tower but Tony had no idea how she was fairing with the tesseract. The Hulk was being bombarded by laser fire and he didn't even know where Thor was.

Then those idiots on the council also sent a nuke at them. As if they weren't having to handle enough as it was. Things were spiraling out of control and Tony really wasn't sure if they would all come out of this alive, but one thing was for sure, if that missile hit the city, no one would survive.

He knew what he was about to do was equal to a suicide mission, but he also knew he was the only one who could do it.

As Tony took to the sky again, he caught sight of Thor and Steve fighting back to back. Steve, his son. That was why he was flying toward the incoming missile. If that nuke went off, Steve would die for sure, but if Tony stopped it, then at least Steve would have a fighting chance and Tony would do anything for his child, even give his life.

**)()()(**

Steve grunted in pain as an alien blast slammed into him and knocked his feet out from under him. He got to his hands and knees and was forced to stay there for a minute, his breath knocked out of him. With every hit he took, he got up slower and slower. Eventually, he wouldn't be able to get up again.

He looked up as a hand appeared in front of his face. He may not last forever, but as long as his team didn't give up, neither would he. He grabbed Thor's hand and let the blond warrior pull him to his feet.

"You ready for another bout?" Thor asked.

"What? You getting sleepy?" Steve asked, with a small smirk.

Neither of them were blind to the fact that things were starting to look a bit bleak. Then Natasha's voice came over the comms saying she could shut down the portal and Steve's hope rose up again. If they could close the portal then they could win this.

"Do it!" Steve commanded.

"No, wait," Tony said.

"Dad, these things are still coming."

"I got a nuke coming in. It's going to blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

Steve's heart stuttered in his chest as his father's words registered.

"Dad, that's a one-way trip," Steve said, his voice full of fear.

"I know," Tony said softly. "Save the rest for the turn, J."

"_Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?"_

"Might as well," Tony said as he prepared to make the turn.

Pepper's face popped up on the screen as Jarvis dialed her number. As much as he wanted to talk to her and as much as he cared about her and didn't want to leave her, it was the thought of leaving his son that hurt the most. For so long he had wanted nothing more than to die and be with his son, now miraculously, he had gotten him back only to be separated from him again. What had Tony done in his life to warrant such tragedy and cruelty?

"Dad..." Steve said, so much emotion in that one word.

"I love you, Steve," Tony said.

"I love you too, Dad," Steve said, choking on his tears as Tony disappeared through the portal.

Steve watched as all of the aliens collapsed to the ground, lifeless, and an explosion rushed toward the portal.

Everything within him screamed at him to keep the portal open at any cost, but Steve knew he couldn't risk that many lives for one person, no matter how important that person was to him. So he said perhaps the hardest words he had ever had to say.

"Close it," he choked out.

"Steve-" Natasha started.

"Close it!" he snapped, feeling as if he was dying inside.

It was times like that when Steve wished he was more selfish, when he wished that his father hadn't raised him to be the good guy and make the hard sacrifices, and when he wished that he was the type of person who was willing to risk countless lives in order to save himself some pain.

However, he wasn't that person, so he was forced to make a decision that would haunt and tear at him for the rest of his life.

**)()()(**

Flying through a portal and into space with a missile on his back was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. As soon as he passed through the portal, Tony began to wish he had made the suit space proof, but he hadn't, and now he was paying for it as all his air disappeared and he couldn't breathe.

He knew he didn't have much time. He needed to let go of the missile, and he had the perfect target. After all, someone had been considerate enough to park their alien space station, base, thing right in the path of his nuke. He would be remiss to not capitalize on that.

He released the missile and watched in awe as it hit the base and a huge fireball lit up against the stars. It was an oddly beautiful sight and one that would make a pretty good last view. The only thing that would have been better was if Steve's face could have been the last thing Tony saw. But seeing as not many people get a good view for their last conscious moments, Tony supposed he shouldn't be too choosy.

As the explosion rushed toward him, Tony's eyes slipped shut, his last sight that of orange fire, black space, and white stars, and his last thought, that of his son.

Then... nothing.

**)()()(**

Steve couldn't even watch as the portal closed, dooming his father to death. He wanted to scream, fight, destroy something, or throw up. Maybe all four. But he settled for letting his knees give out and collapsed to the ground, a flood of tears streaming down his face and occasional sobs shaking his frame as he knelt amid the rubble.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Thor looking at him with sorrow, his own eyes a bit bright. The warrior squeezed Steve's shoulder in silent support and Steve managed to find it within himself to feel gratitude toward the other man for his understanding and for not judging him or looking down on him for his tears.

It was only seconds later when Thor's grip on Steve's shoulder tightened.

"Captain, look!"

Steve's head snapped up just in time for him to see his father's suit slip through the portal just before it closed. Steve leaped back to his feet, a huge smile splitting his face. He was alive! His father had survived. The six of them had won and all of them had made it through alive.

"He did it," Steve breathed.

But just as quickly as his grief had turned to joy, it turned to terror as fear gripped his heart.

"He's not slowing down," Thor said as he began to spin his hammer.

Before Thor could take off, though, The Hulk leaped across and grabbed Tony, before sliding down the side of a building and crashing to the ground, cushioning Tony's impact with his own body. Steve would have to remember to thank Bruce later for saving the most important person in Steve's life.

Steve followed right on Thor's heels as they sprinted to where Tony was laying unmoving in his darkened suit. Thor reached him first and rolled him over before ripping off the face plate. Steve crashed to his knees beside his father and searched for any sign of life. With the suit on, all he could see was his father's face and that wasn't a very encouraging sight, especially as he leaned his ear close to Tony's mouth, searching for signs of breathing and finding none.

"No. No. No. Come on," Steve mumbled as he placed his hands on the chest plate. "Come on, don't do this. It can't end like this. Not after everything we've been through."

Steve glanced up at Thor helplessly before looking back at his father. They couldn't come so far and survive so much just for it to end like that. Steve had never felt so lost or helpless. For all his strength and heroism, for all his serum enhanced abilities, Steve couldn't save the one person he wanted to save the most, his father.

Just as he was about to face the crushing truth that it really was over this time, The Hulk roared, causing Tony to jerk awake and suck in a deep breath.

It took Steve a minute to process what his eyes were telling him. Once he did, a wide smile stretched across his face and he took in a deep breath for the first time since Tony had disappeared through the portal.

"What just happened?" Tony asked, glancing at Thor and Hulk before his gaze settled on his son. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Steve huffed a breathy laugh before gently hitting his fist against the chest plate with one hand, as his other hand gently caressed his father's face.

"Don't ever do that to me again," he said.

"I'd say that makes us even," Tony said, reaching up to squeeze his son's arm reassuringly.

"Yeah, I guess it does," Steve admitted. He sat back and let his eyes roam over the destruction around him as silence reigned around them.

"We won," he whispered.

"Yay. Good job guys," Tony said, tiredly. "Let's not come in tomorrow. Let just take a day. You ever tired Shawarma? There's a Shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."

Steve just grinned, happy to hear his father's voice. They had done it. They had won, they were all alive, and it looked like everything was going to be okay.

"We're not finished yet," Thor said, looking up at the tower, reminding them of the last loose end they needed to attend to.

* * *

**Let me know what you think! Loved it? Hated it? Indifferent? I want to know! :)**


	9. A Discovery and a New Adventure

**A/N So originally this was just going to be a simple epilogue, a 'tie up the lose ends and everybody lives happily ever after' type of thing. But then a plot bunny hopped up to me, grabbed me by the arm, and dragged me down a completely different road. You'll understand once you read the chapter, and the A/N at the end will explain a bit more. **

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**A Discovery and a New Adventure**

It was actually Steve, the artist who was constantly taking in the colors and shapes and patterns around him, who noticed it.

"Wait," he said, causing Clint to lower his bow a bit as Steve stepped forward to scrutinize the dark-haired Asgardian laying on the steps inside Stark Tower. "His eyes are green."

"Okay," Clint said slowly. "Duly noted. You like his eyes."

"What part of 'his eyes are green' says I like his eyes?" Steve asked in a tone of voice that matched his expression, both of which said Clint was an idiot. Steve was definitely his father's son. "I pointed it out because they weren't green before."

"What are you getting at, Steve?" Tony asked, knowing there was a reason behind his son's observation of Loki's eye color.

"Before, when he was on the helicarrier, they weren't green. They were blue," Steve said before glancing at Clint, "a very familiar shade of blue."

"What are you trying to say?" Thor asked, hoping he was interpreting Steve's meaning correctly.

"I'm saying that I don't think he willingly did any of this. I think he was being controlled by someone, just like he controlled Clint and Dr. Selvig," Steve said.

"Loki, is this true?" Thor asked, unmistakable hope in his voice.

Loki didn't answer, but the way he looked away from the group and wouldn't meet any of their eyes spoke volumes. The master of tricks, lies, and manipulation had been controlled against his will and the shame and embarrassment of having to be rescued from it by others was plain to see on his face. As was the sincere regret for his actions.

Thor was overwhelmed with relief and happiness. His brother hadn't been lost to him after all. And he hadn't imagined Loki's hesitation while they had been fighting. When he had entreated his brother to stop the madness that was raging around them, Thor hadn't imagined the slight clearing he had seen in his brother's eyes before Loki had said it was too late. And he now knew that it hadn't been a trick. Thor had actually managed to get through to him for just an instant. Then the influence on him had won out again and Loki had stabbed him, but Loki had been fighting it and he hadn't wanted what had happened. Thor had seen that much in Loki's eyes in that moment.

At the time, Thor had believed the regret and guilt to be a trick, but as he saw it again in Loki's diverted gaze, he knew it had been sincere. Whatever problems and anger Loki held for Thor and their parents, he hadn't wanted to hurt innocent people or take over Earth. That much, Thor was sure of. The rest they could figure out with time.

"Brother," Thor said quietly as he held out a hand to help Loki to his feet.

Loki met Thor's eyes for a moment, and instead of seeing the pity that he had expected, he saw understanding, compassion, and even love. Slowly, Loki reached out and took the offered hand and Thor pulled the smaller man to his feet.

"Let's go home," Thor said.

**)()()(**

The six Avengers were gathered in a park to see Thor and Loki off. Thor had been loath to shackle Loki as his father had ordered him to before he left Asgard but Loki had pointed out that if he were to show up on Asgard unbound it could lead to problems as, thanks to the loss of the bifrost, Thor hadn't been able to inform anyone of Loki's innocence. So, Loki was bound, as per Odin's orders, but Thor had absolutely refused to use the gag on him. Loki wasn't at fault for his actions anymore than Clint or Erik Selvig had been at fault for theirs.

Steve stood next to his father as they watched Thor hold out the other tesseract handle to Loki, and Steve mentally debated whether he should voice his request or not. Ever since they had discovered that Loki had been forced to act against his will, Steve had inexplicably wanted to help him.

Although Loki may have been thousands of years old, by Asgardian standards, Loki and Thor really weren't much older than Steve himself and he felt a kind of kinship with the other two young men. The two alien warriors with family issues, and the out of time super soldier whose family had had plenty of trials of its own. When Steve thought about it, he actually had some things in common with the two brothers and he could easily see himself becoming friends with them. That was, if Loki didn't get sentenced to life in prison, or something worse, first.

Thor and Loki were just about to activate the tesseract when Steve finally made up his mind and stepped forward.

"I'd like to come with you," he said. "I just want to make sure everything turns out okay."

"Thank you, Captain. Loki and I appreciate your support, but you do not have to accompany us," Thor assured.

"I want to," Steve said.

"If you wish to join us, I would be honored to take you," Thor acquiesced.

Without a word, Tony stepped forward to stand next to Steve, who sent him a questioning look.

"I just got you back. I'm not letting you go alone," Tony said.

"I'm coming too," Clint added, surprising everyone as he stepped forward and faced Loki. "I want to hate you, but I can't. I know what it's like to be forced to do things against your will."

"I am sorry for that," Loki said, sincerely. "I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Well, except for Thanos himself, but Loki refused to think about him. It brought back too many terrible memories that he wasn't ready to face yet.

"Well if you're going, so am I," Natasha said, striding forward to stand next to Clint.

"At this rate we might as well all go," Bruce said.

"Great idea! Come on," Tony said.

"I was being sarcastic. I'm pretty sure space travel and the other guy don't mix."

"Hey, anywhere the two of them are from," Tony said pointing at Thor and Loki, "has got to be sturdier than Earth. Maybe it can stand up to The Hulk."

"Tony..." Bruce sighed.

"You might as well come with us Bruce. He's not going to take no for an answer," Steve said with a smirk.

And that was how Thor ended up materializing on the partially repaired rainbow bridge, not only with his brother, but all of the Avengers as well.

**The End.**

* * *

**Okay, before you guys start freaking out and yelling for my head on a platter, there will be a sequel to this. It's going to be a pretty AU, kind of Loki centric, story (so all my fellow Loki lovers be sure to give it a chance), and you won't even have to wait very long for it. It will debut next Friday, and for those of you who just can't wait that long (and just because I love you guys so much), I will post a short preview of the first chapter onto this story in a few days. Until then, TTFN, Ta Ta For Now. :)**

**P.S. Please let me know what you think. :)**


	10. Loki Odinson

**A/N As promised, an excerpt from the first chapter of the sequel to _Steven Anthony Stark_. The full first chapter will be up Friday and the story will be titled _Loki Odinson_. **

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! **

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**Loki Odinson**

"Loki Odinson, you are here to face the consequences of your crimes," Odin began, but before he could continue, Thor finally could contain himself no longer and stepped forward.

"Father, Loki is innocent of what happened on Midgard. He was being controlled by the tesseract," Thor said, causing many murmurs to pass through the room at the unexpected declaration.

"Is this true?" Frigga asked her youngest son, hope shining in her eyes.

The look on her face and hearing her voice again after so long nearly undid Loki, but he resolutely forced his mind away from his love for her and his grudging gratitude toward his brother for standing up for him and one by one, thought of every reason he had for hating the three people he called family. It wasn't too hard with Thor and it was downright easy with Odin but it was much harder with Frigga. Still, he managed to find a few small things to be hurt and angry over and pushed all other memories of her away as he remained silent and refused to meet her gaze. Odin quickly lost his patience with Loki's refusal to answer and rose to his feet.

"Speak!" he barked, thumping Gungnir loudly against the floor, causing Loki to flinch ever so slightly.

Yes, it was downright easy with Odin.

"It's true, Your Majesty," Steve said, stepping forward. "We all saw the evidence of it ourselves."

"Even if that is true, that only absolves his actions on your planet. That does not alleviate him of his responsibility for his crimes here," Odin said. "What say you of this?" he asked Loki.

"Father-" Thor began.

"Silence! I would hear your brother speak for himself," Odin said to Thor before turning to Loki. "What do you have to say in your defense?"

The question turned Loki's mind back to his tesseract induced actions and his anger quickly turned back into shame. What did he have to say? What _could_ he say? After what he had done, did he even have the right to defend himself? It was all his fault. He should have been stronger. He should have fought harder. But he had been weak. Even if he did deserve to defend himself, to explain, there wasn't much he could say. The "it wasn't my fault. I was mind-controlled" line sounded false even to him. So, instead, he said nothing, too ashamed to even look the man he once called Father, in the eye. Better to just accept his punishment and start paying for his weakness.

"Very well. If you insist on remaining silent, then your memories will speak for you," Odin said, coming to stand in front of Loki, towering over the kneeling trickster and reaching a hand toward him.

Loki looked up in shock, knowing what was coming.

"Wait! No," he whispered in horror, panic closing his throat, but his whisper didn't stop the hand from gently cupping his cheek as the entire throne room disappeared.

* * *

**A/N Keep in mind, this was just an excerpt of the first chapter of my sequel. If you want to know more, you'll have to tune in on Friday. :)**

**EDIT: The sequel is now up on my profile. It's titled _Loki Odinson_. **


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